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Beating bacteria

Glossary

A list of often difficult or specialised words with their definitions.

Enzyme

Reusable protein molecules which act as biological catalysts, changing the rate of chemical reactions in the body without being affected themselves

Cell

The basic unit from which all living organisms are built up, consisting of a cell membrane surrounding cytoplasm and a nucleus.

Beating bacteria

Research and development to create new medicines involves testing large numbers of chemical compounds to look at their biological activity.

Decisions have to be made to pick which should be taken on to further development and production.

It can be relatively quick and easy to obtain some key experimental results on large numbers of compounds using isolated enzymes or cells. However other tests that involve the use of animals and human patients must only be carried out on a selected small number of compounds.

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